Bonfire Night

You are here

Bonfire Night

In the UK, Bonfire Night (or Guy Fawkes Night) is celebrated on 5 November and the night skies are filled with colour. It’s a special day in honour of a historic event.

Instructions

Do the preparation task first. Then read the article and do the exercises to check your understanding.

Preparation

The history

The year was 1605 and some English Catholics were angry because King James I was treating them badly. In November of that year, a group of men made a plan to blow up the Houses of Parliament in London. An enormous explosion was planned for 5 November. This was the day that the king was due to open Parliament. The plan became known as the ‘Gunpowder Plot’ and the leader of the group was called Guy Fawkes. The men put 36 barrels of gunpowder in the Houses of Parliament and waited for the king to arrive. The group decided that Guy Fawkes should light the gunpowder and cause the explosion. Did they succeed? No, they didn’t. The police found the gunpowder before it exploded and they caught all the men involved in the plot. The men were tortured and killed. To celebrate his survival, King James ordered the people of England to have a bonfire on the night of 5 November.

Bonfires, Guys and fireworks

On 5 November, people remember the plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament by celebrating ‘Bonfire Night’. All over Britain there are firework displays and bonfires with models of Guy Fawkes, which are burned on the fire. The Guy is made of old clothes and the clothes are filled with newspaper. The fireworks are a reminder of the gunpowder that Guy Fawkes hid in the cellar of Parliament. Some people have a small bonfire in their garden on 5 November, while in main towns and cities there are big bonfires and firework displays.

The biggest firework display is the Edenbridge Display in Kent. Edenbridge also has the biggest Guy: a nine-metre ‘celebrity’ model is burned there every year. Last year the celebrity Guy was Wayne Rooney wearing Shrek-style ears and a football shirt.

Food

It’s normally quite cold in November in Britain, so on Bonfire Night people wear hats, scarves and gloves to spend the evening outside. They need some warm food too. Traditional Bonfire Night food is hot baked potatoes. They are cooked on the bonfire and filled with butter and cheese. There are also toffee apples (apples on a stick, covered in sweet toffee) and in the north of England they eat a special type of cake called parkin. Toasting marshmallows on the bonfire is also popular. Yum!

Penny for the Guy

In Britain only adults can buy fireworks but in the past they were sold to children too. During the days before Bonfire Night, children used to take their home-made Guys onto the streets and ask for ‘a penny for the Guy’ to collect money to buy fireworks. Now you have to be over 18 to buy fireworks, and safety on Bonfire Night is an important issue.

I have never heard about Bonfire Night.It sounds amazing and I want to celebrate it. In my country,Myanmar,Bonfire Night is not celebrated.But we have a very similar festival like Bonfire Night.It’s called “Tazaungdaing Festival ”,festival of lights.It is held on the full moon day of Tazaungmon.It’s a national holiday in Myanmar.On the night of Tazaungmon full moon day,almost every where is full with candles and colourful lights.Fire crackers,fire works and bonfires are the essential things of Tazaungdaing Festival.Moreover Taunggyi Fire Balloon Festival held on full moon day of Tazaungmon is the most famous one. Not only local people,but also foreigners love it so much.U should check this festival on Google.If u wanna enjoy lightning and fire festivals,please visit to Myanmar in November.

We don't have such an event in Egypt .. I think we didn't use fireworks in the past .. it's like something new here ... it's used at the new year midnight, our Christian neighbors does it sometimes and in weddings some guys like to fire a cracker at the begging of a wedding, I remember that in the matches of 25th revolution there were a lot of fireworks ... we call it "shamrookh" .. I like firewoks so much but I'm not keen on it .

I live in Georgia and we don't celebrate bonfire night, but I didn't know that this event exists. it's history was very interesting. It would be cool if we had bonfire night ^_^ we use fireworks for some events like New year, Birthdays, Parties and etc. and children under 18 can buy fireworks on their own, :/ and some of them have many accidents, I think the safety about fireworks must becjust as important issue such as UK.

In Turkey, when spring comes we celebrate Hıdırellez and it's like Bonfire Night. Like in Iran we jump over the small fire. And you write your wishes on paper than throw away to the river or lake it doesn't matter. And some people give biscuits, choclate, lokum -turkish dessert- etc to the guy. And if you want you can dance all night!

Usually, in The New Year's Day, in Colombia is made something similar, in order to forget the Past Year, we make a men with old clothes and full with gunpowder and hay, this men is called ''El Año Viejo'' or ''The Old Year'' in english , in the whole country we burn it up at midnight and celebrate that the ''Old Year'' has passed and a New Year is to come, fireworks and bonfires are lighted up and we start to embrace our family and friends, and share typical food with others... it's an awesome day.

In South Korea we don't Bonfire night.
I hope we have a day for fireworks and bonfires. I think it will be a great fun!!
When we go to amusementpark we can watch fireworks but we don't really do bonefire very rarely when we go camping. but nowadays we don't really do bonfire even in camping.
I want to do bonfire I think it will be fun.
All my friends sit around the bonfire and eat potatoes and sweet potaoes.

In Romania, we celebrate everything with firework. The New Year's Eve, great Romanian men's birthday, so all the holidays. When I was younger, we and my sisters used to look at the fireworks from the attic's window. It was a superb!

Hmm, in Vietnam, we celebrate the Lunar New Year Eve, the National Day and someday like that with fireworks. I haven't heard about the Bonfire Night before, and now I know that in somewhere in the Earth, people celebrate this day. Great !